Inside a desert cavern, a dune hound lying dormant on the ground suddenly opened her eyes, and the aura around her changed abruptly.
Her entire body began to transform. Her frame grew larger, and blood energy surged through her flesh. Yet her aura was extremely weak and unstable.
Once the transformation was complete, Naafiri snarled through gritted teeth, "Human, I'll remember you. I swear I'll make you pay for this!"
Fortunately, unlike most other Darkin, Naafiri had always been cautious. She had prepared spare bodies elsewhere in advance.
At the final moment, she had used blood magic to transfer herself here. The price, however, was losing most of her pack.
Worse still, after being pierced by that strange weapon, a portion of her power had actually been stolen away.
She had suffered a devastating blow. Recovering from it would take a very long time.
And the one who had driven her into such a miserable state was a human, one of the creatures she had once regarded as nothing more than insects.
A profound sense of humiliation welled up inside her, and flames of hatred burned in Naafiri's eyes.
She had firmly memorized that human's aura. No matter what happened, she would have her revenge.
For now, however, her highest priority was finding the other Darkin. As long as all the Darkin joined forces, neither the Aspects nor that human would stand a chance against them.
Luke, Taliyah, and Morgana had already retreated to the city they had visited earlier. Shuriman settlements were well accustomed to dealing with sandstorms, and the city had made preparations long before the storm arrived.
Once the sandstorm finally passed, the entire sky remained covered in a murky yellow haze. Even a casual breath filled one's nose with the taste of dust and sand.
The three brought the remains left behind by Naafiri's pack to the city lord to collect the bounty. Faced with people of such obvious strength, the city lord did not dare neglect them.
Five hundred gold coins, not one coin short, were handed over to Taliyah.
"You should take this money."
Taliyah held out the pouch containing five hundred gold coins toward Luke. She felt guilty accepting it.
She had barely contributed anything to the battle.
Those dune hounds had clearly been far from normal. If she had gone there alone, the odds were she would never have come back.
So in her mind, those five hundred gold coins had nothing to do with her.
Luke did not take the pouch. He simply smiled. "Keep it. I already told you before, I didn't take this bounty for the money."
"But I didn't help at all."
Taliyah shook her head and stubbornly refused to accept it.
Luke looked at her and instead asked, "Do you know Shurima well?"
Taliyah paused before answering, "I'd say so. I was away from Shurima for two years, but things haven't changed that much."
"Then consider the money your fee for working as my guide. There's a place called Icathia that I want to visit next. You can show us the way."
"But even then, this is way too much…"
"Keep arguing and you're going to make this awkward. I don't really know how to explain just how rich I am. Put it this way, five hundred gold is practically pocket change to me."
Luke waved a hand, cutting Taliyah off and forcefully bringing the subject to an end.
Taliyah swallowed the rest of what she had wanted to say. She knew there was no point in continuing to make a fuss over it, and at the same time, she became increasingly aware that Luke's identity was anything but ordinary.
Five hundred gold coins was already a considerable fortune for someone like her, who had come from a tribe. Yet to Luke, it seemed no more valuable than a rock lying beside the road.
On top of that, he was incredibly powerful.
Naturally, Taliyah became curious about who he really was.
Suddenly remembering something, she asked, "By the way, that technique you used earlier, was that Ionian Wind-Wielding Swordsmanship?"
Luke was not surprised that she recognized it. He nodded. "Yeah. It was Wind-Wielding Swordsmanship."
Taliyah's eyes immediately lit up. "Then you definitely know Yasuo! He's my teacher, and he's an inheritor of Wind-Wielding Swordsmanship."
A pleasant surprise filled her. She had never expected to encounter another practitioner of Wind-Wielding Swordsmanship here in Shurima.
Luke smiled. "Looks like fate really brought us together. Strictly speaking, Yasuo and I belong to the same school."
He had not exactly learned Wind-Wielding Swordsmanship through conventional means, but calling himself half a fellow disciple was close enough.
Taliyah sighed with emotion. "Seriously. What are the chances?"
The way she looked at Luke immediately became much friendlier.
After all, how much of a coincidence did something like this have to be?
Thinking about it also reminded her of Yasuo, and she could not help saying, "I wonder how my teacher is doing now."
When Taliyah had first met Yasuo, he had been weighed down by his past, yet he had still taught her how to control her elemental magic. He had been an excellent teacher.
Later, because Taliyah could not stop worrying about her tribe, she had parted ways with Yasuo and returned to Shurima.
Luke replied, "He should be doing pretty well. The last time we met was at Mistfall in Ionia."
He then slowly told her what had happened when he encountered Yasuo there.
Taliyah listened attentively. After hearing where Yasuo had gone afterward, she figured he had probably gone to confront the burden in his heart.
He had once told her that he had harmed his own master, but Taliyah knew he could not possibly be that kind of person.
The two continued chatting.
As their conversation went on, Taliyah gradually became more familiar with Luke and lowered the natural guard she kept around strangers.
"I originally came back because I wanted to find my tribe. But when I reached the place where they should've been, I discovered everyone had already left. I have no idea where they went."
The three were seated together somewhere in the city as Taliyah let out a sigh. "I've been searching for a while now, but I still haven't found any clue where they went. Still, worrying about it won't help right now. Anyway, why do you want to go to Icathia? It's an abandoned ancient battlefield. Nobody's lived there for ages, and hardly anyone goes there anymore."
Most Shurimans had heard at least a few ancient legends about the time when this land had still stood at the height of its glory, when mighty Ascended warriors walked the earth.
Under the rule of a great emperor, the Shuriman Empire prospered and grew stronger than ever before.
Yet one region had persistently resisted Shurima's rule.
Icathia.
It had been a kingdom of mages, and its mage rulers had repeatedly defied the emperor's commands and launched rebellions.
Eventually, the great emperor dispatched Ascended warriors to crush the uprising. Legends said that an earth-shaking war followed. No one living today knew exactly what had happened on that battlefield, but the result was clear.
Icathia had been razed to the ground.
Today, Icathia was arguably the most desolate region in all of Shurima. There were no resources worth developing there, and almost no one paid the place any attention.
Taliyah had traveled extensively over the past few years, so she knew more than most.
"There's something there I want to learn more about."
Luke did not explain further. There was little point in telling her about the Void right now.
But he knew that Icathia was where humans had first summoned the Void into Runeterra. It was precisely because of what Icathia had done that the Void first discovered Runeterra.
They had found no useful information about the Void in this city, so Luke hoped that traveling closer to Icathia might allow them to learn more.
With their destination decided, the three prepared to leave.
By now, news that the dune hounds had been eliminated had already spread throughout the city. Even so, most people were still too frightened to venture outside.
When they saw Luke and the others leave without hesitation, however, some finally gathered their courage and followed after them.
Seven days later.
In an unnamed region of Shurima, towering rock formations rose one after another. Countless holes riddled their surfaces, making them look battered and scarred. Whenever powerful winds swept through those openings, they produced mournful, almost sobbing noises that made the entire region feel unbearably desolate.
This area happened to be a paradise for Shuriman raiders.
Travelers regularly passed through the region, and anyone who became lost among the complicated maze of rocky terrain inevitably fell into the raiders' hands.
Today, however, those raiders had picked the wrong target.
The raiding band numbered more than a hundred. Every one of them was a seasoned desert killer, and most had more than a dozen lives to their name. Anyone weak had been weeded out long ago.
Yet now, horrifying screams rang throughout their camp, filled with terror and despair.
Corpses were piled across the ground. Some had died especially gruesome deaths, their bodies cleanly severed in half by a single strike.
Those corpses rapidly dissolved into blood, which then flowed toward one figure.
He was enormous, towering like a giant. Heavy black armor covered his body, while his flesh was as red as blood. His cold face was framed by crimson eyes overflowing with limitless murderous intent, and the oppressive presence radiating from him was terrifying.
In his hands rested a massive greatsword, its hilt pulsing and throbbing like a living heart.
He did nothing but stand there, yet the sheer force of his presence was enough to make the surrounding raiders collapse to the ground. Their legs went weak, breathing became difficult, and all color drained from their faces. Their eyes contained nothing but despair.
The corpses of the dead raiders melted into blood and flowed into him, seemingly rebuilding his body and making his already monstrous form even more savage and terrifying.
"Don't be afraid! There are way more of us!"
"Get him!"
"Kill the monster!"
A few raiders managed to summon their courage. They roared to bolster themselves, then charged.
The greatsword came down.
The charging raiders were struck in an instant, their bodies splitting apart as easily as blocks of tofu.
"Pathetic insects, barking uselessly… Weak. Far too weak. You cannot stir even the slightest interest in me."
His voice was hoarse, as though his throat had been ruined by countless years of screaming, yet every word dripped with contempt.
He felt pus, blood, and foul fluids running down his body. Muscle and bone ground against one another, tearing and straining as they protested against this grotesque shell.
It was nowhere near enough.
These humans were utterly inadequate. Their flesh could never satisfy him, nor could it restore the glorious form he had once possessed.
They were too weak.
Like guttering candles in the wind, snuffed out by the slightest breeze.
He needed a stronger host.
The remaining raiders had completely lost their will to fight. Every trace of courage had deserted them.
All they could feel now was terror.
All they wanted was to run, to flee this place faster than they had ever run in their lives.
Several raiders scrambled to their feet and sprinted desperately into the distance.
The figure behind them merely watched with his sword in hand. His gaze was cold and contemptuous, completely devoid of emotion, as though he were already looking at corpses.
To him, their attempt to escape only meant they would die a few seconds later.
Just then, a long, lean dune hound suddenly leapt out. Blades split from its body and shot toward the fleeing raiders.
A moment later, several more corpses hit the ground.
"Aatrox. I finally found you."
The dune hound landed and spoke in a human voice.
Aatrox turned toward her and sensed a familiar presence. "Naafiri's scent… How did you end up looking this stupid?"
He calmly stared at Naafiri, once one of his fiercest rivals.
For some reason, he suddenly felt like laughing.
Seeing what she had become made his own current form feel just a little easier to accept.
"That's not important. What matters is that I've been looking for you for a very long time."
Naafiri deliberately avoided the subject of her appearance and stared at Aatrox.
Even after all these years, his presence was still just as overwhelming.
That reassured her considerably. If she could convince Aatrox, then her plan would already be at least halfway successful.
"Looking for me?" Aatrox sensed no murderous intent from Naafiri and sneered. "Looking like that, fighting you would only damage my reputation. I'd rather not have people saying I bully hunting dogs. Hah!"
Perhaps amused by his own joke, the board-like stiffness of Aatrox's face finally gave way to visible delight.
A dog.
The more he thought about it, the funnier it became.
Naafiri had become a dog.
"Hah!" Aatrox laughed again.
It might genuinely have been the funniest thing he had encountered since escaping his imprisonment. His mood had even improved because of it.
Naafiri endured an awkward silence before forcing herself to let it go.
Aatrox had always been an insufferable bastard, even all those years ago.
"I didn't come here to fight you. I came to ask you to join forces with me."
To demonstrate her sincerity, she completely lowered her guard and approached Aatrox.
If he wished, a single swing of his sword could kill her completely.
Aatrox, however, considered such an act beneath him. He merely looked at Naafiri and asked calmly, "You mean you want me to find a leash and walk you?"
Naafiri once again chose to endure it.
She exhaled before continuing. "Back then, we were all deceived by that damned Twilight Aspect. She was the one who drove us against each other. The Darkin were once united. If we gathered our strength together, we could make any being fear us. Instead, she divided us and defeated us one by one.
"During all those years I spent imprisoned, I finally understood something. A single stick is easy to snap, but ten sticks, a hundred sticks together can form an unbreakable wall!"
She delivered the words like an impassioned motivational speech.
"Oh."
Aatrox's reaction was utterly indifferent.
Only the mention of the Twilight Aspect stirred anything in him. For a brief moment, monstrous hatred and murderous intent erupted from his body.
"You don't agree?" Naafiri demanded. "Xolaani, you, me, Setaka, if all of us joined forces, nothing could stop us. And there's something else about the Twilight Aspect. Before finding you, I encountered a human who seemed to possess a weapon she created."
"Joining forces… What an ancient phrase."
Aatrox found himself almost nostalgic.
Once, they had all shared the same glory.
Once, they had fought side by side.
But those memories were now so distant that even he found them blurred and indistinct.
Eventually they had turned on one another, allowing that damned Twilight Aspect to exploit their division.
Then he remembered the centuries of hellish imprisonment he had endured.
Aatrox's fury instantly erupted like a raging inferno.
The aura around him changed dramatically, becoming violent and terrifying.
Even Naafiri instinctively took a step backward as she stared at the overwhelming Darkin before her.
"I have no interest in this alliance you're talking about."
Aatrox forced his anger back under control and looked at Naafiri with utter indifference. "But that human you mentioned does interest me. I suppose he's the one who reduced you to this pitiful state."
Naafiri had never expected to convince Aatrox immediately. At the mention of Luke, she said, "Then you'd better be careful. That human is strong."
"Interesting."
Aatrox raised his greatsword, finally showing a hint of genuine interest.
"Take me to him. Do not disappoint me, Naafiri."
He happened to need a powerful body to reconstruct the form he had once possessed.
If even Naafiri described this human as strong, then perhaps he would prove worthwhile.
As for gathering every Darkin together, Aatrox had no desire to do such a thing.
He already had a far more perfect plan.
He would embrace oblivion.
If he could drag all of creation into a war great enough to destroy everything, then both he and the greatsword that imprisoned him would finally cease to exist forever.
He might appear to have regained his freedom, but in truth, he had merely exchanged one prison for another.
He could never escape the seal within the greatsword, and therefore could never obtain true freedom.
This grotesque body he now wore felt like yet another mockery left behind by the Twilight Aspect.
Then let everything be destroyed.
Destroy it all!
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